A good piece on media links between mental illness and violence: Mostly done pretty badly. It’s from last June, but I post this in light of liberals making lots of “mentally ill with guns” comments in the last few days. Here’s a great quote:
Dr. Joshua D. Lee, an associate professor in medicine and psychiatry at NYU Langone Medical Center, also emphasized that most mass shootings, contrary to many media reports, are not the result of a flawed mental health system.
“These mass shootings are more often than not just like any other violent crimes,” he told CBS News. “There tends to be quite a bit of forethought and planning that would seem to demonstrate that it’s not a mental health system or treatment system or screening problem so much as it is an ability to stockpile incredible amounts of firepower.”
There are cases in which mental illness is involved. Journalists have to get better at telling these stories without stigmatizing the many Americans who are mentally ill, but not violent, and who need to not be driven into the closet (metaphorically) or institutions (not metaphorically) by societal fear.